A solar-powered airship has been developed in Moscow

Scientists and students of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI) have developed a solar-powered airship that can be used in the Arctic and other hard-to-reach areas. It is reported by TASS.

The device, called “Ecodisolar”, uses the lifting power of helium and non-flammable hydrogen to climb. This saves energy when moving vertically.

For movement in a horizontal plane, the airship is equipped with a hybrid electric power plant.

According to the authors of the project, “Ekodisolar” differs from similar devices by a hydroscopic stabilization system, thanks to which the aircraft can accelerate to 130 kilometers per hour.

Engineers noted that their development can be used for search operations and the delivery of goods and medicines.

Also, the machine is able to work in difficult weather conditions, orienting itself with the help of thermal imagers, acoustic sensors and echo sounders, transmitting monitoring data to the operator.

The peculiarity of the new airship is also that it has a disk-like shape, which allows the device not to depend on the direction of the wind, which strongly affects cigar-shaped airships. By the way, due to its shape, Ecodisolar looks like a fantastic “flying saucer”.

The new device can be considered another milestone in the development of the design and construction of airships, which has been going on for more than a century and a half. Despite the fact that airships are rarely seen in the open air in everyday life, balloons are used in agriculture, in the military, as advertising objects or as an amusement attraction.

Unmanned airships are used for high-altitude video surveillance. Sometimes they are used in safari parks and national parks to monitor the state of animal populations.

The peculiarity of the airships is that these devices are almost silent and therefore do not frighten the animals. Airships can take off and land sharply vertically, drift freely in the atmosphere under the influence of air currents, and hover over a given place for a long time. In addition, balloons have long been recognized as a more reliable and safe mode of transport than helicopters and airplanes. In addition, airships are considered environmentally friendly aircraft, so their use has become increasingly popular in recent years.

In the Far North, in conditions of permafrost and many swamps, the development of the infrastructure of traditional modes of transport (both land and air) is extremely difficult and expensive. This makes the use of airships here (primarily large-capacity ones) very popular.

Cover photo: iStock